SD Gundam: Faerie Tales HA! I made a funny!
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: SD Gundam The first place Captain-tachi visits after the "Final Battle" episode is inhabited by faeries! Now the Gundam Force must complete a quest to move on! IT'S DONE NOW! IT'S ALL OVER AND DONE!
1. Meeting the Faeries

Faerie Tales  
  
The first place the Gundam Force visits after "The Final Battle! Commander vs. Captain" has no Dark Axis troops, but it is filled with weird creatures and things and one quest that they need to do to move onto the next place...  
  
The first thing Bakunetsumaru felt under his feet was cold stone. Gravel, rocks, and dust; they were on a mountain. He looked to one side, and there was Zero. He stood with sword and shield in hand, hovering just a few inches above the ground. He turned his head to the other side; Shute and Captain, standing uncomfortably (well, to him, at least) close to each other, watching over each other's shoulders. The scenery around him was gloomy, yet not ominous; the sky was a happy blue, but the ground around him was a dead, dusty brown, interspersed with lichens and tufts of grass. The Gundams stood on a flat platform of Earth which stretched out before them and dropped off just a short distance ahead; no doubt, they were not standing on a mountain, as he first thought, but a plateau, and a steep drop waited for them where the ground stopped.  
  
As Zero and Bakunetsumaru got into a ready stance, flashing their swords, Shute glanced to Captain's head fins. "So, any Dark Axis forces?"  
  
The golden "horns" flashed three times with a red glow. "Um... nope."  
  
The three others fell to the ground, embarrassed.  
  
Zero held his hands outward, and his sword and shield dematerialized until they were nothing more than a little ball of magic energy floating between his massive digits. He clapped his hands together, and so they were immediately unsummoned. "All the trouble of saying the long, tearful goodbyes to everyone we loved in Neotopia, to wind up in a place where there is no sign of the enemy?!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru sheathed his swords. "What a waist of time."  
  
"Perhaps there is something down there," Captain pointed his fingers downward, indicating the lower part of the plateau. "We should explore the region and find out what this dimension calls itself for classification."  
  
"Yeha, we're going exploring!" Shute cried with his youthful cheer and vigor as he jumped into the air, punching the sky. "Come on, guys, let's go!"  
  
Shute grabbed Captain by the hand and pulled him to the edge, running at full speed while the lead Gundam struggled to keep up.  
  
Zero chuckled. "And so, off they ran, the inseparable pair, lost to the wonders of childhood innocence and naiveté, unaware of the dangers that might lie ahe-"  
  
"Zero, who are you talking to?"  
  
Zero's eye began to twitch as a vein popped out of his forehead. "I'm narrating! Don't you have a sense of dramatics, you ignorant samurai!?"  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!"  
  
The two Gundams jumped in their place, their swords at the ready. "SHUTE!"  
  
***  
  
Shute shrunk behind Captain Gundam, who was concentrating on targeting his laser on the two unidentified figures by the river before him. "EW! Ew! What is it?!"  
  
"Identify yourselves immediately!" Captain demanded. "Friend or foe?"  
  
Captain was met with a friendly smile from a green-skinned man. The man was Shute's height, not because he was short but because he was stooped over with old age. His long face and straggly beard made him look like a goat, and his sloping brow and large eyes reminded Shute of Frankenstein. Their was no hair upon his bulbous head, which made his large, pointy ears stick out pronouncedly. His long, long arms stuck out haphazardly from his emaciated chest and stomach. He was human from his head to his belly button, but his lower half was that of a goat or deer (like a satyr). His skin was a sickly green, as was the long, ragged fur on his animal half. He sat comfortably on a dry rock, swinging his hooved feet below him.  
  
Beside the green goat man kneeled an old woman, human in appearance (although her back was to Shute and Captain; they could not see her face). He was clothed in a green dress, tied round the middle with a strip of cloth. Her black hair clung to her wet body, and her olive-skinned hands worked on washing a blood-stained cloak in the river where she sat. She did not seem to mind the water rushing past her. Lying on a dead tree on the river back was a bundle of clothes, drying in the weak sunlight, presumably clothes she had already washed.  
  
The green man bowed from his perch. "No need for such fear, my friend. I am Urisk, and I sit here with the Bean-Nighe (pronounced Ben-Neeyah)."  
  
Urisk set his eyes on the cowering boy behind Captain. "It feels so good to have company. I like human people. They make me so happy." How strange... Urisk spoke with a Scottish accent, and he seemed to talk only to Shute.  
  
Shute shuddered out of fear, yet stepped out from behind his Gundam friend. "I don't think they'll hurt us, Captain."  
  
"I agree," Captain responded, putting away his rifle. "Since they are both organic beings; chances that they are hostile creature are 0.1937%."  
  
Zero chose that moment to come flying down to them, brandishing his sword and shouting, "Fiend! How have you hurt my friends?" Bakunetsumaru followed him, although he did not make as grand of an entrance; he fell flat on his face after sliding and screaming down the cliff face.  
  
Urisk gasped and scuttled backwards, holding his arms in front of his face in defense. Captain grasped Zero's arm. "It's alright! He is friendly!"  
  
"Then why did Shute scream?" Zero snapped.  
  
"Because..." Shute didn't want to say he was scared by Urisk, the goat man. He was just so... ugly that it caught him off guard. He didn't want to hurt his feelings. "I... stepped on a rock."  
  
Zero lowered his sword, sighing and asking for Urisk's forgiveness. "I'm sorry, sir. Please accept the apologies of a Knight of Lacroa."  
  
Urisk skipped back onto his place on the rock, stepping forward on all fours. "It's alright, company. I am used to many running away; but I am not used to any staying. May I ask your name?"  
  
Once again, Urisk addressed only Shute. The boy didn't know if it was because he was human or just something else, but he still felt singled out and scared. He hid behind Captain again.  
  
"I am Captain Gundam of the Gundam Force," recited... well, Captain. "My friends are Zero, the Winged Knight-"  
  
Zero struck a dignified pose with his sword.  
  
"Bakunetsumaru, the Blazing Samurai-"  
  
Baku finally managed to wriggle himself out of the rocks, holding his head fins in pain. "Oowee..."  
  
"And Shute, who you seem to be fond of."  
  
Shute gasped and slipped behind Captain's back, hoping he was out of sight of the goat man. "Captain, no! Don't tell him about me!"  
  
Urisk frowned sadly. "Alas, no one responds well to kindness anymore; such evil and sorrow have disgraced our land, such hatred and depression killing at that love and happiness have accomplished..."  
  
"He's narrating too!" Bakunetsumaru screamed as he pointed to Urisk. "Why does everything in this world narrate itself?!"  
  
"Speaking of which, where are we?" Captain inquired.  
  
"You..." Urisk nodded, looking to Shute again. "Are in the Realm of Faerie."  
  
Zero suddenly startled, his eyes widening. "OF COURSE! I have heard of the Realm of Faerie, if only from story tales and bedtime lullabies. I thought it only a legend, but now I recognize you as Urisk, Protector of Forgotten Pools and Ponds and seeker of human kindness."  
  
Zero turned to Shute. "Shute, his attentions are pure. There is no need to be frightened."  
  
Shute gulped, but stepped out from behind his favorite Gundam, still holding Captain's hand tightly.  
  
"So, we are in 'the Realm of Faerie'," Baku repeated with a mocking tone. "But we have no reason to be here! How do we leave?!"  
  
"Leave..." Urisk put a finger to his chin and rubbed it. "Leave... I know a way to leave this place."  
  
The Gundam force began to crowd around Urisk.  
  
"You walk a ways that way, and you will leave the river behind."  
  
CRASH!  
  
Urisk laughed as a drenched Zero made angry eyes at him. "THAT'S NOT WHAT WE MEANT!"  
  
"We mean to ask if their in a way to transport ourselves to other dimensions," Captain stated.  
  
"Di-men-sions?"  
  
Shute thought of a way to explain a thing like that to someone who had never heard of different dimensions. "You know... other worlds outside of your own!"  
  
Urisk snapped his long fingers, a wide, toothy smile covering his face. "Ah, yes! Watch me!"  
  
The others watched as he stomped a circle into the rock with his wet hoof. "A ring of toadstools marks the place of a faerie ring, a place of faerie dances. Stepping into a ring takes you to places unknown; very few have come back from the rings to tell of what they saw."  
  
"Yes, yes, we all know about faerie rings," Zero waved off the information.  
  
"I haven't!" Shute snapped.  
  
"And to where do they lead?" Bakunetsumaru said with a tight voice, his fists clasped in anticipation.  
  
"Different rings laid by different faeries in different areas lead to different worlds," Urisk cooed. "Some lead to foresting paradises, some lead to deserts, some lead to oceans, some lead to lands of stone."  
  
"LACROA!"  
  
Zero snatched Urisk by the neck and lifted him into the air. "We must get to Lacroa! Where can we find these rings?"  
  
Urisk closed his eyes and sighed. "Alas, the rings are dead, for the faeries no longer dance. Their muse is gone to the ages..."  
  
"Their... muse?" Captain asked while cocking his head.  
  
"I learned about Muses in English class!" Shute cheered, excited that he was able to help with the mission. "They're- like- a writer's inspiration!"  
  
"What does that have to do with dancing?" Baku's eyes switched to confused mode; warbled swirly patterns. "Aw, this world confuses me!"  
  
"Anything confuses you," Zero growled.  
  
Urisk sighed again and said, "I will explain further if you put me down."  
  
"Oh, sorry."  
  
Urisk landed with a soft THUMP sound as his body hit the rock. He thumped his chest and continued. "The muse of the faerie dancers is gone. They have no reason to dance. Because of this, there are no faerie rings."  
  
Shute touched his chest in sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry. Hey, maybe we can find her! Do you know where she is?"  
  
Urisk pointed to the forgotten Bean-Nighe, who had finished her previous work and was working on another. "She is there."  
  
"A washer woman?!" Zero gasped. "The fae's muse was a human?!"  
  
"What about her being a woman?" Shute asked Urisk, bending down to his level.  
  
"When human women die during childbirth, their souls become washer women," Zero explained. "They wash the clothes of those about to die."  
  
"And so this happened to the faerie's muse," Urisk cried. "And the only thing that can restore her is lost to the mountain."  
  
"Mountain?"  
  
Urisk responded to Captain's question by pointing to the horizon with his long fingers, where a towering mountain stood in plain sight. "Mount Gwillyion-Mine is far on the horizon, and the only thing that can restore the muse has been trapped at the top."  
  
"So a little rock or something up there will bring the Bean-Nighe back from the dead?" Shute asked, pointing to a solitary mountain in the distance.  
  
Urisk nodded. "Yes, my little human friend. And with her restored, you will be able to move onto new worlds."  
  
"COOL!"  
  
Urisk pointed across the river. "Follow the path my hooves have left to my old pond. Cross the pond and you'll find yourself in a large field. Follow the edge of that field to Mount Gwillyion-Mine." Urisk traced out a vague map with his hoof. "There will be a road straight to the mountain, but do not take it, for in is the Redcap Road."  
  
"Redcap?" Zero asked. "I am not familiar with this type of fae."  
  
"Evil dwarfish creatures," Urisk shuddered. "They carry huge pole arms and wear caps dyed red with human blood-"  
  
"YEEEH!" Shute felt a bolt of fear shoot up his spine; Captain impulsively spread his arm in front of him.  
  
"Yes, precisely," Urisk ignored the suddenly display of fear. "They will cut you down to nothing by the time you take your third step."  
  
"So, we go across the pond, through the field, and over the mountain." Bakunetsumaru repeated to himself, "Pond, field, mountain. Pond, field, mountain..."  
  
"Thank you very much for your help, Urisk," Zero bowed while he spoke. "Could you join us please, and be our guide?"  
  
"I can't!" Urisk suddenly shot out.  
  
"Pond, field, mountain..." Baku kept saying it, over and over again.  
  
"Why not?" Shute ejected.  
  
"The water!" Urisk looked over his rock with fear in his eyes. "The water, it moves! It moves around my hooves by itself!"  
  
"Most faeries cannot stand running water," Zero whispered to Shute and Captain. "How Urisk arrived here is beyond me."  
  
"Pond, field, mountain..."  
  
"Thank you very much for your help, Urisk," Captain stated. "But we must be going now. Let's go, Shute!"  
  
"Yeah!" Shute climbed onto Captain's back so that he could carry him across the river.  
  
"Do you need me to carry you, Bakunetsumaru?" Zero asked the samurai.  
  
Bakunetsumaru suddenly hollered. "Pond, Field, MOUNTAIN!! Ha! I will not get lost now!"  
  
A trio of little animals (a snail, a grasshopper, and a frog) hopped into eyesight and played a happy little tune, then left. Zero, Bakunetsumaru, and Shute, all stared in confusion. Urisk promptly smashed them with his foot.  
  
"Been popping up everywhere, those things," Urisk growled. "Hate 'em. Good luck, my friends!"  
  
"Bye, Urisk!"  
  
And so the Gundams made their way across, ready in their own minds on to face the challenges of the Realm of Faerie.  
  
DONE!  
  
Notes?  
  
Most obvious one is the trio of things that come out and applaud Bakunetsumaru after his "pond, field, mountain" cheer. If you don't know what that is, you have been living under a rock.  
  
Second is just something I've noticed; most of my SD fics have something in common with the one that came before it (with the exception of "Solution, Self Termination"). Zero's head led to finding out why they had the action figure in Hap-O Jap-O Christmas, which went into 'they did karaoke, how does Shute sing?' in Voice of a Fae, which leads to more faeries being mentioned in this fic! Weird! 


	2. Urisk's Pond

Faerie Tales 2; Urisk's Pond  
  
Weirder, more dangerous creatures inhabit fairy pools. You'll see what and why soon.  
  
Captain scanned the pond for depth. "It is too deep to walk across, and going around would bring us to Redcap Road."  
  
Zero flew over the surface of the murky water. "We must find a way across, then," he spoke with a certain tone that Bakunetsumaru recognized.  
  
"Oh no," Baku groaned, his annoyed eyes switching on. "He's got the look."  
  
"He's got the look?" Shute repeated, not knowing what he meant.  
  
"He's got the look," Bakunetsumaru explained. "That smug expression on his face, his chest all puffed out like that; he's gonna rub something in our face, I know it."  
  
"I could carry you all across," Zero boasted, holding his chest out prominently. "One at a time, of course; I would not want to strain my wings- "  
  
"YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE WINGS!" Bakunetsumaru screamed, upsetting a few of the residents of the pond. Zero got splashed by something's tailfin before yelling back.  
  
"I DO TO HAVE WINGS! WHY ELSE WOULD I BE THE WINGED KNIGHT!?"  
  
"All you have is a cape!"  
  
"My real wings are invisible to the non-magic eye!" Zero shouted, pulling on the corner of his cape. "This is the physical embodiment of the Maana that makes up my wings!"  
  
"That's just a cheap excuse!" Baku growled.  
  
"IT IS NOT! THAT'S HOW MAGIC WORKS!" Zero lowered himself to just above Baku's eye level. A vein began to shoot out of his forehead. "I should have known that such a simpleton would not understand the refines of magic!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru drew his sword. "Why, you little-!"  
  
"STOP IT!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru and Zero both stopped to look at Shute, who had just yelled at both of them. He stood there, clenching his small fists in frustration. "Can we just go now? I wanna get out of here, get rid of the Dark Axis and go home as soon as possible!"  
  
Of course, this struck a nerve sensor somewhere in Bakunetsumaru and Zero's Gun Soul/Soul Drive/whatever they called it. They could understand his plight; they agreed on finishing the shouting match later.  
  
"Shute first," Zero grunted, pulling the boy into his arm. "I'll be back for Captain, then Bakunetsumaru. Hold on tightly, Shute."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Zero took off, flying low over the water, childishly taking enjoyment in watching his Maana push the water beneath him aside. About 1/3 of the way across, Shute looked deep into the water to see something moving below them, swimming unlike anything he'd ever seen. It did not move back and forth like a fish, or up and down like a dolphin. It jerked forward unevenly, reminding Shute of some type of caterpillar. Whatever it was, it made feel cold, nervous, and fearful.  
  
"Zero?" Shute shook the knight's shoulder lightly. "Zero?"  
  
Zero responded not to the shake (which he couldn't even feel) but to Shute's voice. "Yes?"  
  
"Something's following us, underwater." The boy wiggled himself higher onto Zero's arm. "Fly up."  
  
"Fly up?" Zero didn't quite understand the request.  
  
"Higher!"  
  
Zero still didn't understand, but was beginning to feel a strange sense of foreboding in his stomach. He flew straight up, only very, very slowly. Captain and Bakunetsumaru watched from the shore, also very confused.  
  
"What's going on over there?" Captain shouted.  
  
"Shute thinks there's something in the water!" Zero answered.  
  
Shute saw the swimming shape growing bigger. His felt his heart pounding in his chest. "Zero, go higher or it'll jump at us!"  
  
"Shute!" Zero snapped. "I know my faeries, and I know of very few that would jump out and attack us. Don't worry and don't order me around like some stupid puppet! I thought you knew better!"  
  
"But, Zero!"  
  
There was a deafening crash- no, a splash! A monstrous shape leapt out of the water and latched onto the corner of Zero's cape, pulling him and Shute back into the depths! He was up and gone within the blink of and eye, dragging the screaming two behind him!  
  
"Shute!" Captain called out in shock!  
  
"ZERO!" echoed Bakunetsumaru.  
  
***  
  
Zero was just barely able to make out the shape of a horse's head tugging on the side of his cloak. He gasped mentally.  
  
"A kelpie!" he remember. "But they never jump out of the water like that!"  
  
A tight pressure on his shoulder alerted him to Shute's presence. He turned his head to see the human boy, his eyes wrenched shut and his breathing withheld, two sets of green hands trying to pull him away.  
  
"NO!" Zero clutched Shute's arm in one hand and his waist in the other, pushing himself up with his wings. Unfortunately, his wings worked very poorly in water, but it was enough to get one hand above the surface. The kelpie craned his neck forward, snapping his teeth at Shute; Zero accidentally let go of Shute to punch the kelpie away, leaving him open to the hands. The boy was visibly beginning to weaken; his face was bright red, standing out greatly in the green water. Zero snatched him back again and pushed him head above water, trying to take a breath of air. The kelpie and the hands pulled him down again as he inhale, causing him to swallow a lot of water. He sent his hand above again, lost for hope and searching for something to cling to-  
  
SOMEONE GRABBED HIS HAND! A strong, metal hand! A Gundam's hand! It pulled him up and out of the water, pulling Shute along with its knightly cargo. It skimmed him across the pond, so Zero had to close his eyes to avoid making himself dizzy.  
  
They came to rest on the bank, leaving Shute and Zero to catch their breath in silence. The two that nearly drowned rested on each other, Shute using Zero mainly as a pillow; Zero just clung to him for security.  
  
A few minutes of resting let Zero think. "This world is strange; it goes against everything I know about faes. Urisk sitting on a rock in the middle of a river with a washer woman; the kelpie leaping out of the water to attack me. And these Redcaps. I have never heard of them. something must be terribly wrong here. This muse holds more power here than I thought. This situation is dire; if we don't restore this place, us and all the inhabitants here will surely suffer."  
  
He finally had enough strength to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Bakunetsumaru's worried face looking over him. He coughed and tried to speak; his normally elegant voice came out as sort of a croak. "Baku- What happened?"  
  
"HE'S AWAKE!"  
  
Captain stomped into view, holding a pallid Shute in his arms. "We're glad you're back with us."  
  
"What happened?" he demanded a bit more curtly.  
  
'You nearly drowned!" Bakunetsumaru screamed. "You should know that, you were there!"  
  
Zero tried to sit himself up, but his knees buckled underneath him. Bakunetsumaru helped him up as Captain's projector snapped a playback into the thin air. It pictured a rather graphic representation of Zero and Shute's attack (from Captain's point of view, apparently; the "camera" would shake as Captain moved).  
  
It was only a little ways into the movie when Zero asked, "Is there a way to stop the movie, so I can get a clear view of our assailants?"  
  
"Of course." Captain rewinded and paused the playback at a scene where the kelpie was most easily visible; it was clearly a giant, green horse, complete with hooves, mane, and tail, all three of which tangled with cattail reeds and algae.  
  
"Such a monstrosity of a creature!" Bakunetsumaru screeched, his eyes bugging out. "You had to battle that thing underwater!?"  
  
"That and two others," Zero sighed, leaning less of his weight on Bakunetsumaru's shoulder and returning to his own feet. He pointed to the screen and pointed out three hands, reaching up from beneath the kelpie. "Four hands which I am sure were attached to two people; I have a speculation of one, but I am not certain of their identities. Keep playing the movie, Captain."  
  
Captain resumed the film; Zero flinched as his hand flailed helplessly above the water. His "heart" suddenly stung in amazement as dialogue began to enter the film; it happened just as his head shot above water.  
  
It was just as his head-wings had broken the surface when he heard Baku shouting, "ZERO! Zero, what's going on?' How had he missed that?  
  
"Where's Shute?" Captain asked frantically. And with that, Zero's head went under again.  
  
"NO!"  
  
The camera swerved sharply as Captain met eyes with Bakunetsumaru; his green (well, technically brown but mostly green) eyes were glowing, just as Captain's eyes would start aflame whenever his Soul Drive was at its most powerful. "We have to do something or they'll both drown!"  
  
"Right!" Captain grasped Baku's hand in his own. "Hang on tightly, Bakunetsumaru!"  
  
A roaring sound meant that Captain's booster rockets had activated; he shout out above the water, trailing Bakunetsumaru along as a living lifeline. When they reached the battle scene, Baku grabbed Zero's hand, and Captain turned around and began to slingshot back to the edge of the pool. Zero had to turn away as he saw himself being pulled back in like a fish; it was too embarrassing, and it reminded him too much of the whole ordeal.  
  
Finally, Captain stopped the playback, taking this time to stroke the traumatized Shute's hair. Zero sighed once again and finally stood up on his own, urging Captain to let go of the boy and let him do the same.  
  
***  
  
They began to walk around the perimeter of the pond, guessing that a land- based foe would be a bit more easy to defeat than a water-bound one. Shute was still pale, but breathing normally; Bakunetsumaru kept a wary eye on the water, the sword closest to the pool ready in his hand. It left Zero both flattered and a bit flustered.  
  
When something began to stir under the water, there was a bit of an extreme reaction; each one of the Gundams pulled his weapon and readied to fire in the blink of an eye, pushing Shute behind them. The water parted to reveal-  
  
It was a terribly ugly sight; some kind of horrible cross between a man, a fish, a toad, and a crocodile all in one face, with a snubbed nose like a pug. Long, whipish tentacles swung back from its head, creating sort of a surrogate hair. A red feather cap sat intermingled with all the slimy appendages on its head. As it crawled ashore, it became clear that this was a creature more suited for water than the kelpie; its green hands were webbed, and there were gills slits where the ribs would normally be. Its skin was green, as were most things in this world, apparently. It crawled along the ground, pulling with its two arms because it had no feet; it had a huge tail fin, like a fish!  
  
"AA!" Shute launched himself behind the nearest Gundam (Captain) and hid himself.  
  
"STOP THERE!" Bakunetsumaru screamed, holding both swords to the creatures face. "Friend or foe!"  
  
The wild-eyed creature cocked its head to the side, then took a raspy breath. "Friend. Please take care not to fillet me!" And then he laughed!  
  
Sweat drops rolled down all of the Gundam's heads. The ugly thing had a decent voice; it reminded Zero of King Davis back in Lacroa.  
  
Shute whispered from behind his friend, "I think he's okay."  
  
"We still need to make sure," Captain reminded him. He turned to the thing. "Alright, if you are truly our friend, what is your name and species?"  
  
"Species- what?" The monster scratched his head. After a second, his face lit up like the light bulb had finally gone off. "OH! What am I! Well, I am a Merrow! My name is Kgrrsgdgkd!"  
  
"Kgrrs- What?" Bakunetsumaru counted off the syllables on his fingers. "K- gr-"  
  
"Kgrrsgdgkd!" said. uh. the thing. "You have to role the 'grr'."  
  
"Kgrrrskdg- wait, I messed up," Zero stalled. "Kgrrrrsg- no."  
  
Shute giggled and slowly began laughing out loud. Captain smiled inwardly as the color began to return to his best friend's cheeks.  
  
Kgrrsgdgkd slapped his forehead. "Okay, this was a bad idea! Lemme start over!" He stuck out his webbed hand. "Hello, I am a Merrow. My name is hard to pronounce; you can call me Kade."  
  
"Hi, Kade!" Shute stepped into the open and, refusing to take Kade's hand, bowed instead.  
  
"So, what are you doing here so close to Redcap Road?" Kade asked.  
  
"We are trying to cross the pond in order to get to Mount Gwillyion-Mine," Captain stated.  
  
"We're gonna find the thing that'll restore the muse!" Shute cheered. Kade nodded.  
  
"I understand."  
  
"Answer me a question, Kade," Zero asked. "Why is this world in such turmoil? Why are kelpies suddenly so ravish for food, and why is Urisk so far from his home?"  
  
Kade sighed and began to explain. "It all started when a great red bird came through one of the fairy rings."  
  
Kade then began to describe the "bird"; it fit every specification of the Komusai! He told of the Dark Axis coming and trying to conquer their all- organic world; surprisingly, they held their own and drove them away! But it came at a price; the forces of Faerie had to join together from all corners of the Realm, and some tribes of fae who had never met each other suddenly became enamored with each other, so they began to marry and have children. The Muse was one of these faes. She had become pregnant and had died in childbirth, making not only the fairy dancers stop dancing, but the plants to stop growing and the ocean to stop churning! The world was dieing, and many breeds had become vicious in order to survive. The Redcaps were just one; they had lived within a large castle for a long time before their cattle was turned to stone. They had since moved onto the road to catch unwary humans for food. A shape shifting fae called the Phooka, who had first been nothing but a harmless prankster who feed on sheep to humans, had developed a taste for blood and (turning into an eagle) had carried Urisk to the river and tried to crush him on the rocks below. Unable to withstand the running water, the Phooka had left him there to rot. And now the kelpies (who had always fed on humans, they had just been a little more discreet about it) had joined forces with other carnivorous creatures to catch and kill their meals.  
  
Bakunetsumaru gulped and shuddered as if he had just heard a ghost story. Shute had gone pale once again; Zero was in awe.  
  
"This mission is now top priority," Captain stated. "It seems that we are helping this world from a Dark Axis invasion."  
  
"True," Zero nodded. "Kade, do you know a safe way across?"  
  
"Me and my friends set up a magic barrier around that corner of the pond so that the kelpies and such would not eat us. The rest is safe; we will swim you across." Kade turned back into the water, showing off his strangely ornate and pretty tail fin (it was long and flowing, like a Japanese fighting fish).  
  
"Kade's nice!" Shute chirped soon after he left.  
  
"I am glad he decided to help us," Zero agreed.  
  
"But still, we must be careful," Captain reminded them. "Because of the recent occurring, the chances of meeting a hostile organic being have gone up exponentially."  
  
"We must be on our guard at all times!" Bakunetsumaru shouted, swinging his swords and basically showing off. "We must always be vigilant, always be alert, trusting no one!"  
  
"No we don't," said Captain.  
  
Baku fell over in embarrassment. "Why not?"  
  
"Because I have noted that Shute had correctly guessed the intention of every creature we have come across," Captain said, pointing his thumb at the human boy. "We can know ahead of time who is good and who's not."  
  
Shute blushed. "Aw, it's nothing special, I just kind of. um. know."  
  
There was no time to finish the statement, as Kade had just returned with more ugly Merrow men and a few Merrow women (they were very humanlike and pretty, surprisingly, but they still had tentacle hair). Kade waved them into the water. "Come on in, we'll swim you all across!"  
  
The four were afraid to jump right into the water, but they eventually managed it. Each Gundam took about four Merrows to carry him; Shute, however, just clung to a Merrow woman and that was it. They made their way across the pond, slowly but surely. As they reached ¼ way, Kade pointed his hand to a few shapes moving in the water. "Over there, it's the kelpie and her accomplices."  
  
Zero saw the kelpie's head and the heads of two ugly, green-skinned women (again with the green!). Also was a large frog's head and a formless lump with black, lumpy skin and a wild, fiery red eye. They watched him from a safe distance, obviously mad but unable to come closer.  
  
"What are they?" Bakunetsumaru gasped.  
  
"You recognize the kelpie," Kade began to ramble. "The two hags are Peg Powler and her sister, Jenny Greenteeth."  
  
"I KNEW it was Jenny Greenteeth trying to get us!" Zero shouted, moving with the force of his voice; the Merrows holding him struggled to keep him from going under. "I did not know she had a sister though, so when I saw them attacking in twos, I didn't think it was her!"  
  
"The had just come here after the war," Kade kept going. "The giant frog in a water leaper, also notorious for feeding on humans, fishermen mostly. The black lump is a Nuckelavee."  
  
"What's wrong with his skin?" Shute asked.  
  
"He has no skin," Kade informed them. "What you see is blood and veins, tissue and sinew, bare and simple."  
  
Shute resisted the urge to throw up and quickly turned away. Bakunetsumaru did the same; Captain was benign to the whole scenario. Zero felt like his head was about to drift off of his shoulders.  
  
The group of man-eaters swam along their invisible barrier, watching as the Merrows and their cargo made their way to the other side of the pond.  
  
***  
  
"Thanks, Kade!" Shute cheered, squeezing the water out of his shirt. "Can you give us any advice about the field we're about we're about to cross?"  
  
"I've never seen the field myself," Kade dug deep into the banks of his memory to remember a rumor he had heard about the plains. "But I know that you can't step on the tufts of grass, I know that much."  
  
"Thanks, Kade!" Bakunetsumaru bowed humbly. "We'll fix all of this, don't worry!"  
  
"Your world will soon be back to normal, don't worry," Zero comforted.  
  
"Bye, Kade! Bye Kade's friends!" Shute skipped away after his Gundam friends, leaving the waving Merrows behind.  
  
DONE! Oo, that was scary!  
  
Notes? I think, lemme look.  
  
The Nuckelavee, in the words of Brain Froud, "is surely the most awful of the Scottish sea faeries." It's like a centaur with flippers for legs; one eye; no skin; long, long, long arms that reach to the ground; and a head that looks to big for its body. It's scary looking enough in my book, and my book only show a picture of its arm!  
  
All of these faeries' designs are taken from the book "Faeries" by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. It rocks, you should get it. Beware of old-style art that has most of the faeries naked, though.  
  
DONE! 


	3. Faerie Fields

Fairy Tales 3; Fairy Fields  
  
Iron is one of the few things that will break a fairy's spell. But when Bakunetsumaru gets cursed, where do the others go to find iron? To the closest source.  
  
"Alright, men!" Kade called to his Merrow friends while he deposited the Gundams on the shore. "Merrow, salute!"  
  
"Salute!" The others cried, saluting and tensing their muscles. Kade waved them into waiting and turned to the foreigners (our Gundam Force).  
  
"We're glad we could help," Kade spoke solemnly. "We can only hope that restoring The Muse can return our home to the paradise it once was."  
  
"We'll try, Kade," Captain said while bowing.  
  
"Thanks for the help!" Shute waved.  
  
"No problem!" Kade dived underwater, his friends following in perfect synch.  
  
"Bye, Kade!" Bakunetsumaru shouted, waving his arms exaggeratedly.  
  
"I wonder if that little yell was the Merrow Salute." Zero wondered.  
  
He didn't need to wonder; just as he finished his thought, all of the Merrows tail's shot above the water and splashed the four. Shute giggled while Bakunetsumaru let out a loud belly laugh. Captain stood there, oblivious. Zero growled, his annoyed eyes switched on.  
  
"Now THAT'S a salute!" Baku roared.  
  
***  
  
"Wow!" Shute silently wheezed. "Look at this place! It's so-"  
  
"BIG!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru's cry shot through the endless meadow and through the air, the very grass moving in the force of his voice. The field's grass was long, yet soft and smooth. Patches of flowers grew here and there, mostly bluebells, pansies, foxgloves, toadstools, and weird little ones Zero called "Saint John's Wort".  
  
"This is so cool!" Shute squealed, his muscles tensing. He shot a mischievous glance at Bakunetsumaru.  
  
Baku eyed Shute suspiciously. "Shute-san, what are you thinking.?"  
  
"Kade said not to step on the tufts of grass," Zero reminded Captain. "Those weeds are actually pixies hidden underground, and if you hurt them, they curse you into wandering for the rest of your life."  
  
"My goodness," Captain reeled back. "I had better explained that to Shute. Shute!"  
  
Shute shot by Captain, involved in a tag match with an equally oblivious Bakunetsumaru. They each laughed and smiled and completely ignored the world around them; they were just playing. Doing something neither of them had done for some time.  
  
Zero smiled. "Have you ever seen anything cuter?"  
  
Captain's attention faltered as Shute tripped and fell into a patch of pansies. He soon snapped back to attention.  
  
"Well, actually-"  
  
"Just agree with me, Captain, in that those two are adorable together."  
  
"Oh. Alright, then."  
  
Zero laughed and watched again as Shute pushed Bakunetsumaru down (well, Baku was faking being knocked over; Shute could never hope to get a Gundam off his feet). But, as soon as Baku hit the ground-  
  
POOF!  
  
He was gone!  
  
"Baku?" Zero shouted, his eyes shooting open. "Bakunetsumaru!"  
  
"AAH!" Shute yelped. "Where'd he go?"  
  
Captain ran forward and examined the area where Bakunetsumaru fell. A squished little bundle of uprooted weeds was the only disturbance seen in the tall grasses.  
  
Zero gasped and began to shake. "Oh, no."  
  
***  
  
"HAHA HA!" Bakunetsumaru could barely breathe as he pushed himself up from his place. "Good one, Shute! Now, lemme see if I can-"  
  
When he opened his eyes, Shute wasn't there. Nor was Zero or Captain. The little outcropping of pansies that Shute had fallen into was gone as well. There was nothing there that he recognized.  
  
He blinked in confusion. "Hello?"  
  
"Baku? Bakunetsumaru!"  
  
"Zero, i'zat you?" Bakunetsumaru swiveled his head to trying a locate the voice.  
  
"AAH! Where'd he go?!"  
  
"Shute?" Baku frowned. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"  
  
"Mereow!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru looked to his shoulder; sitting there was a little hedgehog- esque creature with weeds growing out of its back. It was green (what wasn't green here?) with amazingly hand-like feet. It looked into Baku's eyes and hissed threateningly.  
  
"WOAH!" Baku tried to swat the creature away; it jumped up onto his shoulder once again, hissing even louder. "Alright, this is weird! Zero!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru stepped for- wait. He stopped. "What the?"  
  
He took three steps forward and noticed something. Every step he took forwards, he moved backwards!  
  
He whimpered in fear and began to hold his shoulders, shaking like he did when he was just a little Musha growing up in Hi-mahoumaru's dojo. "Whoa. what's going on here? S-s-some kind of w-w-witchcraft, if you ask m-me."  
  
A golden glimmer of light in the corner of Bakunetsumaru's eye caught his attention. "What's that?" He turned towards the source; it looked like it was coming from a small, knotted tree in the distance.  
  
Music flittered in and out of his ears; it was coming from the tree's direction. "Well, I don't know what it is. but I might as well see."  
  
He began to walk forward and (surprise) the ground moved forward with him. He led himself to the tree.  
  
***  
  
"Bakunetsumaru!" Captain called out. "Bakunetsumaru!"  
  
"Baku!" Shute echoed his friend, calling out the samurai's nickname. "Baku- san, hello?"  
  
"It is to no avail," Zero cried, his eyes to the ground. "Bakunetsumaru is lost, cursed by a fae to wander and never find his way home."  
  
"No he's not!" Shute tried his hand at encouraging Zero; his usually well- received words fell on dead ears. "We'll find him, don't worry, Zero! We just need to find him and break the curse!"  
  
"Every magic spell has a counter spell, so you told us," Captain said as he rubbed Zero's shoulder. He switched on his happy eyes, just for encouragement purposes. "Bakunetsumaru will soon be back in our hands."  
  
"We just need to break the curse!" Shute chirped hopefully. His cheerful demeanor faded slowly. "Now, what do we do to break the curse.?"  
  
"There are numerous ways. Let's see if I can remember it."  
  
"Remember what?" Captain asked.  
  
Zero took a deep breathe and began to sing, (to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", no less) "If faes you wish to drive away, then heed these words that I now say. First bless your lips with holy prayer, then turn outside your outerwear. Iron also breaks the spe- IRON!"  
  
Zero shot into the air in ecstasy, landing very lightly. "We just need to find something made of iron! All Bakunetsumaru needs to do is touch it, and the curse will be broken!"  
  
"YEAH!" Shute, as usual was up and down again with emotion. "But, where will we get the iron?"  
  
"I am also confused as to where we will get iron. This area is mostly grassland," Captain stated.  
  
"My Master would always give me an iron dagger whenever I went out to play," Zero reminisced. "So, weapons are usually made out of iron, so we need to find a weapon."  
  
Shute sweat-dropped. "But where do we find the weapons?"  
  
"If you silence your yelling, you will hear the clank of a blacksmith's hammer," Zero narrated. "Control your breathing and you will smell molten metal. Relax your eyes and you will see the red sparks of a furnace fly. There is an army near; and where there is an army, there are enough weapons to set free 1,000 Bakunetsumarus."  
  
***  
  
Bakunetsumaru kept walking, the weed-hog on his shoulder as he sang his impromptu "get-up-and-stop-shaking-like-a-baby" song. "Walkiiiiiiiiiiing! Walking towards the little tree that's probably on fire 'cause it's glowiiiiiing! But I hear some music so there's probably somebody who is singiiiiiiiiing! And I sure do hope that is Shute because it would be reassurriiiiiiiing! And I cannot think of anything more that rhymes with walkiiiiiiiing! And I just thought one up now and it is anythiiiiiiiiiing! And my voice is getting hoarse 'cause I've been singiiiiiii- (cough, wheeze, cough) dang it!"  
  
Baku stopped walking and sat down swiftly, closing his eyes and relaxing. "Oh man, I feel sick. I need food. I need rice balls." His mouth began to water. "Oo, what I wouldn't give for some of Neotopia's famous rice balls; the ones that contain the love and respect of the person who makes them! Those big ugly ones that Zero makes are really good, especi-" He stopped suddenly, just realizing what he said. "Woah, wait a minute!"  
  
***  
  
Zero and Captain both stepped in front of Shute, just then realizing that they had made a terrible mistake. All three of the heroes felt horribly painful knots forming in their stomachs. Shute and Zero went pale, while Captain gasped to himself.  
  
"Oh no."  
  
They had gone off the field and had wandered straight onto Redcap Road.  
  
The road was more like a ditch that had been worn into the field after centuries of walking the same path over and over again. On either side of the wide path were dozens of tents, each smoking with an inner fire. Irons axes, scythes, swords, and maces all lay strewn out among the dust; none of them were sharpened.  
  
The Redcaps themselves were tanned, wrinkled little men with leather armor and red wool caps. They stood hardly any higher than Shute's armpits, and widthwise they were the human boy's equal. They were all hunched over and emaciated, which made their knobby bones shoot out from beneath their skin. Their faces were much too large for their heads, with noses too wide, eyes to buggy, mouths too gaping, and hair too sparse. The eyes of the Redcaps were wild and flaming; an eerie yellow that dug straight into Captain's Soul Drive and stuck there.  
  
And this they knew quite well, because every single Redcap eye in the Redcap camp was centered on the small group of Gundams.  
  
Zero readied his sword while Captain anxiously fingered his rifle. Shute gulped audibly.  
  
"What're we gonna do?" Shute whispered.  
  
"Steal one of their weapons, and then run back into the field," Zero announced. "They did not move onto the field before, they will not do it now."  
  
"Go get 'em, guys."  
  
Captain nodded. "We will."  
  
"GO!" Zero rushed onto the road while Captain hung back and, not bothering with his targeting eyepiece, blasted the Redcaps. Shute stayed behind Captain, cheering him on as usual.  
  
Zero smacked away at least 4 Redcaps on the first swing of his sword, only to be countered by 10 more jumping on him, hacking away with dull axes. Captain didn't dare fire near Zero; he concentrated on small groups of Redcaps which would move toward him and Shute. Zero could barely hold his own; he launched himself into the air and held out his sword and shield.  
  
"Super Magical Violet Tornado!" The Redcaps were suddenly blown away by a myriad of purple rose petals. One small axe got away from the twist and shot towards Captain; Captain and Shute both dodged, but Shute didn't dodge soon enough and-  
  
"OW!" the blunt axe skimmed his cheek, cutting him across his cheekbone.  
  
"Are you alright, Shute?" asked Captain, holding out a concerned hand.  
  
"I'm okay," Shute reassured his friend, holding his bleeding cheek. "Uh, why is everything so quiet?"  
  
Shute looked over Captain's shoulder and nearly shrieked in fear; each Redcap had focused their attention to him, licking their lips and sneering suggestively.  
  
"RUN!"  
  
Captain pushed Shute on the chest, urging him to run. The human only fell over, which meant Zero had to swoop down, pick him up, and fly off with him. The three raced into the fairy fields, panting for breath. Zero deposited Shute on a dead patch of grass which, Zero guessed, was previously a fairy ring.  
  
"Oh man, that was close!" Shute wheezed. He looked up at his savior twice today, Zero. "Aa!"  
  
"Zero, what happened to you!?" Captain yelped.  
  
Shute ran his delicate fingers over Zero's numerous dings and dents; they couldn't have been caused by the Redcaps, no way were they that strong!  
  
"The Redcaps," Zero sighed, confirmed Shute and Captain's worst fear. "Their strength is great, and their hunger insatiable; I felt their fury the second Shute's blood was spilled. I Felt it!"  
  
The ground began to rumble beneath the feet of the Gundams. They looked about wildly to find the source, and so they found it. An immense army of Redcaps, riding upon flame-red horses, holding axes, swords, maces, and newly acquired spears.  
  
The heroes paused, unable to think of anything to say, or even do. The sight of your impending doom is a bit of something to bear, you understand.  
  
"Shute, may I have permission to swear?" Zero asked.  
  
"No," he quickly answered.  
  
"Oh, wonderful."  
  
***  
  
"(pant, pant) Um, wheels on fire, rolling down the road. um. what's the next line?" Bakunetsumaru moaned, the fairy music still teasing his ears. "Oh, I'm tired! But I still want to walk, but- my legs hurt, and I'm out of breath, but I want to keep going, but I don't want to. ow."  
  
The music began to whistle through his ears even louder. He blinked. "What the- is that singing?"  
  
He could barely discerner a few words, but it was a chorus of women, and they were singing. He looked down to his weed-hog companion. "Hey, it's people! Maybe they can help me get back to Zero and Captain and Shute! Yeah!"  
  
"There's no turning back."  
  
"What the hey?" Bakunetsumaru could hear the words more clearly than ever now; it was a slow, droning tone, sung by deep-voiced women. About 20, actually.  
  
"You belong to us now."  
  
"Excuse me?" Baku clenched his fist in anger. "I don't belong to anybody, who are you?!"  
  
"The name's on your grave."  
  
Baku then went pale and shrunk to about 3x his normal size. "G-g-g-g-g-g- grave?"  
  
"You will not ask us how."  
  
***  
  
Shute ran as fast as he could away from the fairy horse. The horse snapped at him with razor-sharp teeth, barely even cantering to keep up with the relatively slow human boy. This was one of his worst nightmares; being chased by some animal. It didn't matter which animal because he was afraid of all of them, every last kind. Animals could hurt, bite, scratch, claw, trample, Hurt! Just thinking about it made Shute dizzy, and his eyes began to water.  
  
"Somebody, help me!"  
  
Captain jumped away from his previous battle to tackle the fairy horse. He was then, without warning, jumped by 20 Redcaps, who proceeded to beat him with maces.  
  
"Captain!" Shute screamed.  
  
***  
  
"You're now dead to all."  
  
"Stop it!" Baku screamed, clenching his fists. "I'm not dead!"  
  
"Trapped in your new home. your friends are forfeit."  
  
"My friends?" Bakunetsumaru paused and thought for a moment; where were his friends? "What do you know about my friends? Where are they?"  
  
"You will spend life alone."  
  
Baku felt a swirling wind encompassing him; he closed his eyes tightly, only to open them again to see-  
  
He was in the middle of a battle! Many tiny brown people ran all around him, screaming and waving their arms. "Hey! What's going on here-"  
  
"GAaah!"  
  
"I recognize that scream!" Bakunetsumaru gulped. "Zero!"  
  
He looked for Zero, but found only a soft veil of silk; he was wrapped in a cloak. He looked over his shoulder and saw the face of a fairy; a young woman with blue skin and darker blue hair. She placed her hands on Baku's shoulders.  
  
"You belong to us now."  
  
And she sang with the voice of 20 women! It was like an entire choir was living in her throat!  
  
And that was enough to scare Bakunetsumaru-san.  
  
"WAAH! WITCH! SORCERESS! MAGIC-USER!" he jumped back and fingered his blade. "D-d-d-don't make me use this!"  
  
She laughed and pointed to Zero, who was being swamped by a large number of Redcaps. "You're now dead to all."  
  
"Zero!" Baku ran forward, only to have the ground move sideways and away from his Knight Gundam friend!  
  
"Trapped in your new home." The silk-garbed fae laughed, stroking her cloak.  
  
"Aa!"  
  
"Shute!"  
  
Baku turned around just as Shute had tripped and fallen. Captain stretched himself over the human boy, trying to protect him; it worked, but it wouldn't hold for long. The Redcaps were already trying to flip the Gundam off Shute.  
  
"Your friends are forfeit."  
  
"Captain!" Baku growled and lunged at the fairy woman; she laughed and dodged out of the way. She took a breathe to sing the next line, but Bakunetsumaru cut in. "You leave them alone!"  
  
And she gasped, appalled that she had been interrupted in her dirge. She stiffened up and began to sing again, a little louder and a bit more intensely. "The curse is complete, you are trapped, you are mine." And at a faster tempo.  
  
But Baku was ready. He began to talk back, not quite singing but speaking with enough of a tone to get the fairy mad. "I will not put the life of my friends on the line!"  
  
Her voice began to change, morphing from 20 women in one of 10 voices combined (the way the aliens spoke in that movie we watched together, remembered Baku). "No man has ever escaped from my spell!"  
  
"They're in need of my help," Baku motioned to Shute and Captain. "They are not fairing well."  
  
The fairy was no longer singing; she was shouting. Her gown flapped about her as if she were standing inside of a tornado, and her eyes began to glow a terrifying red. "You won't upstage my voice, you incompetent jerk!"  
  
"Well, I'm sorry, My Lady," Baku sneered, grabbing the hilt of the sword on his right hip. "But you've just been usurped!"  
  
He pulled his katana and-  
  
***  
  
Shute saw the axe zooming towards his chest. That Redcap was about to bash his heart in, killing him on the spot. He heard Captain voice crying out something to him, but he didn't hear it. A bright white flash shot over him, smashing the axe in pieces and pushing away the Redcap who wielded it. After that, it was a little hard to explain; it was simply a white blur that would dash to this Redcap and back, finally driving them all away. The blur began to move into focus.  
  
"Oh, Maana, do my eyes deceive me!?" Zero gasped and nearly wept as his best friend, Bakunetsumaru, almost magically appeared before his eyes. "Bakunetsumaru!"  
  
"Baku!" Shute jumped up and hugged the Musha Gundam; Baku didn't like it (the touch of human skin made him uneasy), but he let him. "Bakunetsumaru, you're okay!"  
  
"Where were you?" Captain asked, switching on his happy eyes. "We're glad you're back!"  
  
"I'm not sure exactly where I was," Bakunetsumaru sighed, rubbing his head. He startled as Zero scooped him into his arms, giving him his second hug of the day. "Geh! Hi, Zero."  
  
***  
  
"All I did was pull out my swords," Baku explained, holding his katana before his face. "And then everything went all. slow, and I started attacking people."  
  
"Are your swords made of iron?" Shute asked, daring to touch the side of the blade; it felt more like smooth aluminum that iron.  
  
"What's iron?"  
  
"The fae you met was obviously some kind of bluebell fae," Zero said proudly. However, other thoughts began to enter his mind. "Or, maybe it was a Leanan-Sidhe (Lan-awn-shee). or maybe it was the glaistig, but she lives near water. but with everything going wrong." He groaned and fell to his knees. "Now I am starting to get confused. This is so embarrassing."  
  
"All I know about these swords is that they were given to me by my master Hi-mahoumaru, who obtained them from his grandfather and his grandfather before that. That they were forged by the purist of all the monks o-"  
  
"Didn't Zero say something about saying prayers?" Captain suddenly remembered. "As protection from fairies?"  
  
Zero shot up into the air, his face aglow. "Of course! Bakunetsumaru's swords were forged in good, while the curse he was under was evil! The magics contradicted each other and broke the curse! YES! I'm back on the beat!"  
  
As Zero did an absurd little victory dance, Baku pondered to himself. "Hmm. it was not just my will that caused me to pull my swords. I normally would not attack a woman. there is some higher power that wishes us to succeed, I know it!"  
  
"Well, let's go guys!" Shute shot out in front of the small group and clapped his hands once. "Next stop, Mount Gwillon-Mine, or whatever!"  
  
The three Gundams nodded and began to move, the mountain becoming larger and larger within their view.  
  
"Hey, Captain?" Shute asked naively. "What were you yelling at me when the Redcap was about to kill me?"  
  
"That I love you."  
  
"Oh, okay- Woah! What?!"  
  
Baku laughed. His friends ruled.  
  
OKAY! Notes, notes.  
  
THIS IS RATED G! There is no actual romantic thing going on between anyone or anything! It just. sounded like something Captain would say. or something. oh, it sounded good in my head, but then I put it on the computer, and it's clumsy! Gah!  
  
Just like Zero said, the fae that tried to curse Baku was a mix of a glaistig, Leanan-Sidhe, and bluebell fairy. Nothing specific. But the weed- hog is actually a type of pixie called "stray sod". Redcaps are also "real". The glowing tree is a Will-o-Wisp, a special faerie that looks like a dead tree that leads lost travelers astray. And faeries have to their name their own breed of horse, the last of which supposedly was bought in an auction by a British emissary a long time ago; it reared up on him and threw him off, killing the emissary and running off into the wilderness, Supposedly dieing (you never know, those horses lived for centuries (hears best friend Double F go "Eeee!" hopefully and smiles).  
  
To answer Baku-san's question, the next line is "Notify my next of kin, this wheel shall explode."  
  
DONE! 


	4. Mount GwillyionMine

Fairy Tales 4; Mount Gwillyion-Mine  
  
It's the hero's final stop as they slowly make their way up Mount Gwillyion- Mine. Will they find what they need? Let's hope so, I'm running out of ideas- OOPS! No I'm not! I'm not! IEE!  
  
"This is it?" Zero growled, staring at the dusty brown mountain that looked as if it had been sculpted out of mud. "There's a clearly defined path to the top!"  
  
Shute knew the winding path up the mountain reminded him of something. Of course it reminded him of a screw, the way the trail wrapped out the lone mountain, but it was something more familiar. It suddenly came to him. "Oh, this kinda looks like something Grandpa Stewy made for me back before he went crazy! I think it was supposed to be a top!"  
  
Shute set his right foot on the mountain; the stones gave way beneath his feet. He adjusted his weight and grunted in satisfaction. "This'll work. Okay, let's go!" The human stepped forward, only to feel his shirt pressing tightly against his voice-box; he gagged and tripped backwards, landing in the outstretched arms of Captain.  
  
Zero sighed, still clinging to the back of Shute's red over- shirt/vest/thingy. "Why must you insist on doing things the hard way? Come with me."  
  
Zero scooped the boy into his arms and began to fly up the side of the mountain, Shute giggling and waving to the earthbound Captain and Zero. Zero flew straight up, admiring the sky and how blue it was. or, at least, sort of blue. It was getting darker as Zero flew upwards, as if a storm were brewing.  
  
Without warning, a bolt of lightning struck right beside Zero and Shute, scaring them both out of their wits! Zero faltered and immediately fell back to ground, landing roughly. His eyes were swollen to the size of dinner plates.  
  
"WAH! Okay, no flying!" Zero panted, holding his "heart". "NO flying up that cursed mountain!"  
  
Captain grabbed Zero's shoulders and shook him. "Where's Shute?"  
  
"What?" Zero checked both of his arms and found them empty. "Ah!"  
  
"YOU DROPPED SHUTE?!" Bakunetsumaru screamed. "WHERE IS HE?"  
  
Zero began to panic. "A- oh no!"  
  
"Guys!"  
  
The Gundams looked up to see Shute crouching on top of an overhanging rock, a long ways up the mountain. He was a little dirty on one side, probably because of Zero dropping him. He giggled none-the-less. "Why must you insist on doing things the hard way, Zero? Come with me, kudasai."  
  
***  
  
Captain listened to every word of Shute's time-wasting story, glad that he could concentrate on something other than the rock-climbing expedition. Zero and Bakunetsumaru were absorbed in their own conversation about princesses and caste systems and whatnot.  
  
"So then, the horse fell over! I mean, right on the guy's leg!" Shute scratched the area of his back directly between his shoulder blades. "And I know I shouldn't have, but I laughed. Not at the guy, at the horse! 'Cause you know I don't like animals, right?"  
  
"You have told me numerous times that, exempting humans, you despise most organic beings," Captain spoke truthfully.  
  
"So, I laughed!" Shute rubbed his head, reminded of the pain. "And then Grandpa Stewy hit me with his cane. I think. I can't really remember that well." He tried to scratch his back again. "AA! Tag itchies!" Shute grunted in effort, yet stopped when Captain began to scratch his back for him. "Aaahhh.. Thanks, Captain."  
  
"You're welcome, Shute."  
  
"Captain?"  
  
The blue-and-white Gundam turned around just as Bakunetsumaru collapsed on his shoulder. "Captain, I'm tired. Can we rest?"  
  
"Yes! I like that idea!" Zero and Baku sat down directly on the trail, leaning on each other and breathing heavily. "Just a quick nap."  
  
"Alright, then." Captain waved Shute over to his side, sat down, and turned off his systems. Shute stayed awake, cuddled in his best friend's arm, waiting for himself to become sleepy and nod off.  
  
So he sat there, and thought about how weird this trip had turned out to be so far. He had nearly died twice; saved once by. hmm. who did the drowning rescue belong to? Was it Zero, who pulled him away from the green hands who wanted to eat them? Bakunetsumaru, who pulled both he and Zero out of the water away from the green hands who wanted to eat them? Or Captain, who had been Baku's lifeline so that he could pull both he and Zero out of the water away from the green hands who wanted to eat them? Oiy, it was confusing, but there was not doubt that the second rescue belonged to Bakunetsumaru, who arrived from out of nowhere to keep him from getting eaten by the evil Redcaps (or, not really evil, they were probably just really hungry).  
  
Was it going to be this dangerous in all of the other dimensions? Surely there had to be more places like Neotopia or Lacroa, maybe. Or would all of them be hostile towards humans? Would he always have to be on his guard? It depressed him; part of the reason that Captain and Zero got so beat up back with the Redcaps was because they had to try and protect him. He couldn't hold his own in a real battle, and if he tried, he would get in serious trouble, get rescued by one of the Gundams, and get called "reckless" and be told "never to do (that) again". It made him mad, angry that he had never made this realization sooner.  
  
Shute growled. "I'm an honorary Gundam. I should be able to go into battle and fight by myself, just like Captain and the others. I'm strong, I can help."  
  
He stroked the golden fins of Captain Gundam, who was still holding him like a little teddy bear. "I'm not just some little tool who sits in the back and activates Captain's Soul Drive. No offense, Cappy."  
  
Captain grunted and adjusted his arm, pulling Shute in closer. The human wiggled himself into a more comfortable position and kept talking to himself. "Hmmm. I've got an idea! This mountain looks pretty easy to climb! I'll make the way up myself while everybody's asleep, get whatever The Muse needs, and bring it back down! Oh, man, they'll be so proud of me!"  
  
Shute gave Captain a quick hug. "Bye, Captain! Don't hurry to wake up!"  
  
Captain let loose a loud growl and flung both arms around Shute unconsciously, pulling him into his chest so strongly it was almost painful. Shute snarled and tried to push himself away, but Captain only tightened his grip.  
  
"Jeez, Captain, you've got the arm strength of a bear!"  
  
"Mm, mmm. yoummhmm mine."  
  
The honorary Gundam laughed. "You've got some odd things going on in your head, don't you?"  
  
"Sssouhhh driveh."  
  
Shute sniffed his disapproval and squirmed about until he could fell his arms again. "Now, how to I get out of here?"  
  
BOOOOWBOOWBOWBOOWOOOOoooooaaaahhooo!  
  
Rain. Oh, sweet, fortuitous rain! For as the cold downpour began, Captain let go of Shute and covered his sensitive eyes, giving him his chance to escape.  
  
"Bye, Captain! Don't wait up for me!"  
  
Captain felt a warm glow arise from within his chest in his sleep. "Shute."  
  
***  
  
And so, he kept running. It was a treacherous climb, because as he ran upwards, it became darker and stormier, sometimes making Shute's footing slip out from beneath him. He had already fallen in the rain twice, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell because of the torrents which would wash off the majority of the mud.  
  
Shute stopped and tried desperately to hide beneath a ledge; the water only seeped into the back of his shirt. He whimpered in anguish. "Oh, come on! I know the rain was good when Captain had me, but it needs to stop now! Please? Kudasai? Somebody!" He squealed again. "Tasukete kudasai! I have been hanging around Baku WAY too long if I'm yelling stuff in Upper Neotopian!" A bolt of lightning hit the other side of the mountain, sending a painful shockwave through his spine. "ITAI! HELP! TASUKETE! SOMETHING!"  
  
He looked about frantically for a better shelter and saw a tiny cave in the side of the mountain. "A cave! I'm saved! Thank you, whoever made me see that!"  
  
***  
  
Shute sniffled, wiping his nose on his wet arm. "I guess the 'mine' in 'Mount Gwillyion-Mine' is actually for. a mine." He kicked a nearby mine cart for lack of something better to do. I guess I can wait."  
  
He began to walk forward, led by the sound of clinking hammers and chittering voices. He sang to himself, "The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell-"  
  
"Hi-ho, the dairy-o, the farmer in the dell!"  
  
Shute froze in place, not daring to breathe. "Okay," Shute thought to himself. "There's something in here, and it's trying to sing to me. Maybe. I'll do what Baku said he did and sing back."  
  
"The fairy takes a wife, the fairy takes a wife- oh no! I messed up!"  
  
Whoever was singing along laughed heartily and sang, "Hi-ho, the dairy-o, the fairy takes a wife!"  
  
Shute began to speedwalk into the mine, renewed by a sudden surge of confidence. "The wife takes a child, the wife takes a child."  
  
This continued for a while with Shute and the mysterious voice singing back and forth to each other. Shute began to feel cold, probably from his clothes being wet for most of this journey. He shook himself not much unlike a dog and kept walking. Before long, he reached another hole, this one much smaller than the one he crawled through.  
  
"Hi-ho, the dairy-o, the cheese stands alone!"  
  
Shute turned a little ways to the side and bowed. "Thanks for keeping me company, but I have to go now."  
  
"Ho, boy!"  
  
A little brown thing jumped out of the walls of the mine. It was humanoid in shape, the size of a cat, and dressed in. sort of. medieval. Robin Hood- esque clothes. He had a long and pointed nose, whoever he was, and held in one hand a miner's pick and in the other a stone.  
  
"Greetings, me lad. I be Darnell of the Knockers." Darnell bowed gracefully. "And I be a miner by trade."  
  
"Hello. I'm Shute Marxworth, of the humans," Shute laughed. "And I'm looking for something to help The Muse. Are you the one who was singing?"  
  
"Yes! And ye knew me favorite song!" Darnell placed the small rock in Shute's hand. "For cheering me up today, here be a fairy-shot stone."  
  
Shute examined the fairy-shot stone; it was shaped like an Indian arrowhead.  
  
"If y'er seekin' what I think ye be, you're gonna need that." Darnell bowed again. "I must be back to me minin'. Happy trails, human boy!"  
  
Darnell leapt into the shadows and disappeared. Shute shrugged and wiggled through the tiny exit to the mine.  
  
***  
  
"Well, at least the storm's let up," Shute muttered to himself, holding his shaking shoulders as the water soaked into his skin. "Maybe now I can get something done." He took a quick peek over the edge. "WOAH! I'm a lot higher than I was when I went into the mine! I can see the guys!" At least, he thought that the little blue and red spots were the Gundams he called friends. Without cause, they disappeared and reappeared in a different spot right before Shute's eyes.  
  
"Woah." the human rubbed his eyes, and the spot disappeared. "That was. weird."  
  
Shute kept walking, finding that the ground stopped on the other side of the mountain. Out where he couldn't see it before, there was a huge ocean stretching out to the horizon. He gulped and remarked to himself, "Imagine what lives in there. (gulp) I hope it's not more kelpies. I hate kelpies. I hate animals." He sighed and admitted, "This is hard. I miss Captain."  
  
***  
  
Captain flinched in his sleep, his Soul Drive wavering in and out of activation and dormancy so frequently that it hurt him. He moaned in pain. "Ow. ooooaaaah.. Mmm. Shute."  
  
***  
  
Shute silently trekked up the mountain, unable to think of anything he could use to keep his mind off of his aching legs and tight chest. As he rounded a corner, he had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating again.  
  
Two woman, green in color (the green! Enough with the green! Rargh!) with long, tangled hair. They crouched on boulders on either side of the path, staring at Shute with piercing, colorless eyes. Their long hair fluttered in the wind, accentuating their long, sharp faces. Behind them, the path in the mountain forked, with one trail leading up and one trail leading flat.  
  
Shute approached them and bowed respectfully. "Hello, my name is Shute. Can you tell me which path is the one to the top of the mountain?"  
  
The green woman startled and looked at each other, unable to comprehend the fact that someone was talking to them.  
  
"Um, do you not understand Middle Neotopian?" Shute cleared his throat (it took a few minutes). "Sumimasen. Doko-"  
  
One of the women coughed and began to speak in a raspy, unused voice. "We (cough) c-heard you the f-hir-irst time."  
  
"Oh, thank you, Miss."  
  
"I'M A MAN!"  
  
"OH! Sorry! I couldn't tell!"  
  
The green MAN pushed back a tuft of hair. "The f-(cough)flat path will le- hee-ad you to the tohp. Yo-hoo-ou must run qui-hic-kly or the path will collapse underne-hea-heath you."  
  
"Thanks, sir." Shute bowed again. He took a deep breath and ran across the flat path, finding that it inclined not long after it turned around the mountain. A loud rumble of falling rocks greeted his ears; he yelped and began running faster, finally jumping over a small rock and landing on his chest, his breathing labored.  
  
***  
  
Captain, Zero, and Bakunetsumaru all awoke with a start, breathing deeply and trying to comprehend what had just gone through their heads.  
  
"Captain," Bakunetsumaru bolted. "Did you just have a dre-"  
  
"Yes," finished Captain, holding his head. "Shute-"  
  
"Getting hit by lightning," Zero continued from there. "We all shared the same dream. what about you, Shute?"  
  
No response.  
  
"Shute?"  
  
"Shute-san?"  
  
"Shute?"  
  
Zero caught something out of his eye which made his circuits run cold. He pointed to the wet trial, unable to make the words come out of his throat. Captain followed Zero's arm to see a set of footprints leading from this spot up the mountain.  
  
"OH NO!"  
  
***  
  
"That's it!" Shute whispered, beholding the tip of the mountain. It sparkled like a diamond against the already dark background of the sky. He gasped, or at least, tried to. The breath caught in his throat, making him cough and wheeze before setting off up the top of the mountain. He touched the shining gem and marveled at how it cleared his throat and made all his aches and pains go away. It sort of. took him over. he just stood there, one hand on the gem and the other hand on the mountain. He. just. zoned out. He didn't even notice when the rain began to pour again, washing away some of the mountain mud and revealing that the egg gem was fused to a thin column of solid rock.  
  
He was snapped back into reality by a static roar which rumbled above his head. He looked upwards to see a dark purple circle forming in the sky.  
  
"The Dark Axis!" Shute panicked and began to pull on the gem egg with both hands, his weakness shooting back into his chest like a punch in the stomach. "Egh! Yagh! It won't move!"  
  
The Komusai shot out of the gate, the terrible trio of Zapper Zaku, Grappler Gouf, and Destroyer Dom riding atop it with about a dozen Zako soldiers.  
  
Zapper Zaku let loose his irritating (if unique) laugh. "Finally, this world is weak enough to take over! Let's start doing some damage!!!"  
  
DEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDEDED! "YEH HAAAA HAH HAH HAH HAHA!"  
  
"Stop firing that gun, Zapper!" Grappler snarled, smacking Zapper upside the head. "We need to destroy the power source first, then get to work here, or else the Bagu Bagu won't have any effect on the organics!"  
  
"Duh, anybody got an umbrella?" Destroyer Dom whined. "I don't like duh rain!"  
  
A Zako soldier handed Destroyer Dom a frilly lace umbrella. "Here you are, Lord Dom, Zako."  
  
Dom twirled the umbrella happily. "Duh huh huh, it's a jolly holiday with me! Duh huh huh!"  
  
"Shut up, Dom! Bad Dom!" Grappler looked into a small cell-phone like apparatus and looked into it. "Now, according to the energy sensor, the power source for this dimension is right. below us!"  
  
"Hey!" shouted a familiar voiced Zako (I'll give you a hint: Yellow Microphone). "Look down there! Captain Gundam's little pet has the power source!"  
  
Zapper Zaku looked down upon the pale, wet, sunken-eyed human. "Well, well, it IS Captain's little pet human! Aw, are you lost, little organic boy!?"  
  
"You leave me alone!" Shute tried even harder to pull the gem egg off the mountain, despite being blinded by several lightning blasts not far away.  
  
"And what are you going to do about it?" Grappler shouted. "Without your little Gundam pals, you're nothing!"  
  
Dom jumped atop his favorite instrument of destruction, the Gallop Tank. "Gallop, lock onto target and fire full arsenal!"  
  
Missiles porcupined out of the Gallop's inner weapon locker and pointed themselves at Shute.  
  
"Aa!" Shute held onto the mountain for dear life, awaiting his death.  
  
"SUPER MAGICAL VIOLET TORNADO!"  
  
A ferocious whirlwind blasted the Komusai, sending it out and away from the mountain, towards the ocean. Shute, however, felt no blast this powerful; all he felt was a gentle breeze and the soft caress of a few rose petals. This and the battle cry together made Shute stop flinching and turn around.  
  
"CAPTAIN! ZERO! BAKU! YOU WOKE UP!"  
  
The Gundams themselves were standing on a lower part of the trail, unable to climb up and reach the human boy because the remaining path had been washed away by the rain. They looked at Shute with relieved and hopeful eyes.  
  
"Shute, get down from there!" Zero cried.  
  
"Hurry!" Captain added.  
  
Shute began to let himself fall, but his hands stuck to the egg gem. "Uh oh! I CAN'T LET GO!"  
  
"What?!" Bakunetsumaru waved his swords about in anger. "What do you mean?"  
  
"YOU STUPID GUNDAMS!"  
  
The Komusai arose from the other side of the mountain, behind the Gundam Force. Each evil not-quite-Gundam held aloft his favorite weapon: Zapper, his gattling guns; Grappler, his ax/sword; and Destroyer Dom, his bazooka and Gallop Tank.  
  
Grappler Gouf spoke first. "You pesky Gundams get in our way every time we try to do something!"  
  
"This time, we'll make sure nothing happens ever again!" Zapper Zaku snarled.  
  
"Target acquired!" Dom entered a fighting stance and fingered the trigger.  
  
"Not if we have anything to do with it!" Captain snapped.  
  
"Let's go!" Baku jumped onto the Komusai, holding his swords high.  
  
Shute kept struggling, but it was as if his hands were superglued to the gem. "I can't move!"  
  
***  
  
Urisk awoke with a start, looking towards Mount Gwillyion-Mine with a worried expression. "My little human friend is in trouble. PHOOKA!"  
  
A large eagle dropped from the sky and landed next to Urisk. The goat man snorted. "Phooka, it's an emergency. An evil force is trying to steal the Land Heart."  
  
The eagle startled, his eyes growing. He nodded and lowered his wing, allowed Urisk to jump onto his back. "Bean-Nighe! Come with me!"  
  
The Bean-Nighe stopped her washing and joined Urisk on Phooka. They flew off of the rock and into the sky.  
  
***  
  
Kade's head shot above the water. "Hey! It's the ones that almost drowned! They're under attack! GUYS!"  
  
The Merrows jumped out of the water and, turning themselves into little hornless cows, stampeded to the mountain. The kelpie also joined their trek, carrying Peg and Jenny, the Nuckelavee, the Water Leaper, and a tall woman dressed in a flowing robe.  
  
***  
  
"There is a battle on Mount Gwillyion-Mine!" the head Redcap roared to his minions. "Where there is a battle, there is blood!"  
  
The army cried out in rebellion, raising their weapons.  
  
***  
  
"There's trouble on my mountain!" Darnell muttered. "No one messes up my mountain! My brothers!"  
  
Darnell's abundant brothers grabbed their picks and hammers and charged out of the mine.  
  
***  
  
Captain worked as hard as he could to knock Zapper's ax out of his hand, but the evil not-quite-Gundam was as good a swordsman as he was. Zero had to break from trying to (literally) disarm Grappler Gouf to rescue Bakunetsumaru from falling off the Komusai. Destroyer Dom, for some unfathomable reason, began to show some brains and started shooting Shute! The boy couldn't dodge the blows; he could only crunch up and hope Destroyer missed which he often did.  
  
"Somebody help me." he cried, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Somebody.."  
  
BOOOOWBOOWBOWBOOWOOOOoooooaaaahhooo!  
  
Shute couldn't take it anymore; a young boy can only withstand so much. He suffered a moral breakdown, and finally just broke into a loud sobbing fit. "HEEEEEELP!"  
  
Captain began to feel a fire within his chest, with his eyes burning red with an inward fire.  
  
"SOUL DRIVE ACTIVATE!"  
  
"Super Magical Violet Tornado!"  
  
"Secret Arts! Bakunetsu! Tengyo Ken!"  
  
Zapper Zaku jumped into the air in fear. "Aa! Not the Triple Attack!"  
  
"Be quiet!" Grappler Gouf ordered, holding up his little cell phone thing. "We have this, remember! It'll absorb every bit of energy from that stupid attack!"  
  
Captain gasped to himself, his Soul Drive shutting off momentarily. Bakunetsumaru also uncrossed his swords, causing both him and Captain to fall. "Oh no!"  
  
"CAPTAIN!" Shute knew he was crying only because of his sore face muscles; his face was drenched with rainwater, so tears were basically undetectable.  
  
A giant eagle just zoomed in out of nowhere, catching Captain and Bakunetsumaru just as they were about to fall! They were being held in the eagle's talons as Urisk gave a celebratory whoop.  
  
TWING!  
  
The energy absorber was then knocked right out of Grappler's hand by a spear!  
  
Without warning, millions of spears, arrows, throwing axes, and rocks began launching themselves at the Komusai, hitting Zako soldiers and the three head honchos and anything else in their way!  
  
"What's going on?" Bakunetsumaru shouted.  
  
Zero looked down and pointed with his buster sword. "It is the faes! They have joined our cause and are fighting with us!"  
  
Shute gazed downward and saw a huge mass of mostly humanoid creatures, many of them throwing rocks or some other type of weapon, other simply cheering or blowing battle horns.  
  
"Let's get out of here, Zako!" said a little soldier.  
  
"Open Zakorello Gate!" Grappler screeched! The gate opened very slowly; the magical energy from all of the fairies was interfering with the signal.  
  
"Don't let 'em get away, Captain!" Shute screamed. "Go get 'em!"  
  
Captain felt his chest glowing again. "Let's try this again!" He dropped back down onto the mountain, his entire arm shining with the power of the Soul Drive. "Soul Drive Activate!"  
  
"Gladly!" Zero chimed. He positioned himself squarely on the side of the mountain, still fearing to fly too high because of, um, electrical circumstances. "SUPER MAGICAL VIOLET TORNADO!"  
  
Bakunetsumaru bounded into the air, unable to get a flat running surface to work on. "TENGYO KEN!"  
  
The Dark Axis troops were quickly blown into the sky, sucked into the Gate only after feeling the sting of the famed Gundam Force Triple Attack!  
  
Shute couldn't contain his joy. He screamed as loud as he could. "ALRIGHT! GUNDAM FORCE RULES!" He punched the air in ex- Hey, his hand was loose! "Aa! I'm free!"  
  
Captain ignored the pouring rain and reached out to his human friend. "Please, Shute, grab my hand, we need to get out of here!"  
  
"I, um, wait! We need this thing!" Shute reached into his pocket and grabbed Darnell's fairy shot stone. He hit the column and cracked it, shattering the elf shot. "Aw, man!"  
  
"Shute, we don't have time!" Captain pleaded.  
  
"We need to get out of here!" Zero begged. "Quickly, before you get hurt!"  
  
Shute wiggled the egg gem, jumping at a lightening bolt which surprised him. "I'll get it!"  
  
FLASH! BOOM!  
  
To the faeries on the ground, it was just a bolt of lightening which hit the tip of the mountain. But to Captain, it was watching half of himself dying before his eyes.  
  
Within just a few seconds, Shute had gotten the egg free. But, as soon as the rock which supported the egg gem snapped, a bolt of lightening hit him square in the chest. A bright flash of light surrounded Shute for a moment, and then he shot backwards, the egg gem going in the opposite direction. Captain's ears were met with a myriad of screams, the most heartbreaking being his own.  
  
"I've got him!" Captain dashed after Shute, Zero and Bakunetsumaru hesitating (they didn't know who should help Captain and who should go after the egg thing).  
  
Captain had to race the force of gravity to make sure he hit the ground with Shute before Shute hit the ground by himself. He turned on his heel- wheels and sped down the mountain, keeping the human boy in sight. He had to time this just right, or else. he didn't want to think about it.  
  
"Okay." he calculated. "3...2...1... GO!"  
  
In an amazing feat of strength, he shot himself up into the air, his booster rockets firing at full output. Unlike most of what had just happened in the last couple of seconds, time seemed to be going too fast for him to comprehend; he almost dropped Shute, but he managed to land with the boy intact and cradled in his arms.  
  
Captain cuddled Shute as tightly and fully as he could. Shute was barely aware of what was going on himself; he only recognized the large, muttering figure as Captain because of the golden glow that was enveloping him. His senses sort of swam in his head until he could finally understand what Captain was saying.  
  
"I'm sorry. (mumbling) alright now, it's okay-"  
  
"I'm sorry, Captain." Shute whispered, embarrassed that he had to apologize. "I wandered off when I wasn't supposed to, and I got hurt."  
  
Captain shushed him and pushed the boy's forehead into the crook of his neck. "Don't, Shute. It's alright now."  
  
Shute began to cry, choking back louder sobs and trying very hard to breathe steadily. Captain kept massaging his shoulder, comforting the traumatized youth. The very sight of Shute crying just tore his heart to pieces. "It's alright, Shute, don't cry. I'm here, and I won't let you get hurt again."  
  
"I was so scared!" Shute hugged his savior back and let the tears flow.  
  
"There, there," Captain cooed to the boy. "I. I was scared too."  
  
Zero and Bakunetsumaru watched from a short distance away, the Winged Knight actually standing beside Baku as opposed to his actual floating.  
  
Baku could barely hold back his own tears as Shute finally let his fall. His eyes began to quiver. "That (sob, choke) that is so. sweet and.. (sniffle). kawaii!" He turned and fell into Zero's chest. Zero simply patted his back and let him cry, keeping his eyes on the Gundam and human before him.  
  
"How truly amazing," he sighed to himself. "Such a bond between those two."  
  
***  
  
The Bean-Nighe only had to lay her hands on the egg gem (or Land Heart, as the faeries actually called it), and she was suddenly transformed into a tall, pale woman with red hair and a beautiful green gown. The Muse, formerly the washer woman, hugged Shute so tightly that the boy turned red (not from embarrassment, but from lack of air).  
  
"Oh, thank you so much!" cried The Muse, sounding a whole lot like Sayla. "That was so brave of you! And to think you died!"  
  
The Gundam Force startled, not quite understanding the statement.  
  
"I didn' die!" Shute mumbled, his voice drowned out by The Muse's body.  
  
"But you did!" The Muse squealed. "The Land Heart brings humans back from the dead only if they're dead in the first place. When a live human touches it, its soul is bound to the Land Heart! Soul bonds can only be broken by dieing, and you died, but you touched the stone again, so you came back to life! Isn't that cool?"  
  
All four of the Gundam Force members went pale.  
  
"You mean Shute actually died?!" Bakunetsumaru shrieked.  
  
"And came back?!" Captain added.  
  
"I'M A ZOMBIE!" Shute yelled. "AAAAAH!"  
  
The Muse turned red (this time from embarrassment) and threw her hand over Shute's mouth. "NO! No! You're alive again! You're alive again! You're not a zombie!"  
  
Shute settled down enough to stop screaming, but as soon as The Muse let him go, he barreled into Captain's arms. "I was dead!"  
  
"But you're not anymore!" The Muse snarled, pulling at her hair. She slumped over, sweat rolling down her temple. "Okay, look, the fairies are dancing again, and you're free to leave here and go wherever you want to go. So, just, go! So I don't have to explain more about the Land Heart!"  
  
Captain agreed and led the Gundam Force to the nearest fairy ring, which was in the middle of Faerie Field. Zero and Bakunetsumaru looked into each other's eyes.  
  
"Are you sure this leads somewhere?" Bakunetsumaru asked.  
  
"Certain," Zero nodded. "Hopefully, it will take us to Lacroa. But if it doesn't, I am not worried. Any world in need of our assistance will be home to me until I can find my own."  
  
Shute smiled and held onto Captain's arm, taking Zero's hand in the other. On the count of three, they jumped into the ring together.  
  
DONE! Notes now! Man, this was a sappy chapter.  
  
About Shute not liking animals; I've got nothing against animals, okay? I love animals, especially horses and dogs and big cats and whales (yeah!), but it seems like a nice counterpoint to Shute's character, since his three best friends are Gundams and he, being a boy of ten with a HUGE house and yard, has no pets. It seemed like an interesting thing to add to his character.  
  
ONCE AGAIN, NOTHING ROMANTIC BETWEEN SHUTE AND CAPTAIN! They are best friends that would do anything to make sure that they both survive to live to the next day. Like me and my friend Double F! We'd risk our lives for each other, I know!  
  
Gwillyions, Knockers, Phooka, and most other faeries mentioned here are real. The Muse is not. There is no such thing as a "great human fairy Muse", that's just something I made up.  
  
Samurai Jack is cool. So is Bakunetsumaru, cause he's a samurai, but that's really not important to the notes.  
  
And that's it! This story is now done! DONE! 


End file.
